Summer means lots of time on your hands. It's the perfect time to give kids the experience of giving to others.
Youth workers know the benefits of helping. We understand how it makes one feel useful, confident, and empowered. Kids especially can benefit from the self-esteem boost that comes from doing something for someone else.
Service projects allow kids the opportunity to develop empathy and compassion by helping others. It also gives them the chance to hone critical organizational, social, time management, and problem-solving skills so crucial to their own personal development. By giving a little thought to how you structure projects, you can delegate most tasks to your kids. This will give them a sense of responsibility and ownership, an ultimately a sense of pride in a job well done.
Assign a group of kids to do the initial legwork. What project will you take on? Are there phone calls that need to be made to get information, locate resources, or obtain permission? Develop a timeline of activities from start to finish, identifying each step of the project and the details involved. What supplies or resources are needed? What arrangements need to be made? Identify a group of kids who will be responsible for each piece. Remember that the more responsibility kids take on in a service project, the richer their rewards.
Some ideas to get you started:
- Collect food for a local food bank. Kids can go door to door in their own neighborhoods, or you can set up tables outside of business establishments. Be sure kids never go house to house alone.
- Arrange to collect clothing or food for needy families, or for local fire or flood victims.
- Offer to read to young children at your local hospital, library, or YMCA. Kids can select their own favorite books from their childhood to share.
- Choose a local park and designate a clean up day. Divide tasks by skill or interest, or have kids rotate through jobs after a set amount of time.
- Raise money through a carwash, bake sale, or other means, and find a cause kids are interested in helping.
- Adopt a Highway programs are always looking for groups to take on a stretch of road.
- Arrange to visit elderly patients at a nursing home or hospital. Have kids talk, read to, or play cards with residents.
- Arrange to spend a day helping local seniors with chores. Kids can do simple things like making beds, vacuuming, or preparing a light meal.
- Collect used books and deliver to your community library. Or hold a book sale and donate the proceeds to the children’s library.
- Collect supplies to donate to a women’s shelter. Clothing for women and children, toiletries, and toys are good suggestions for families who may have had to leave their homes quickly.
- Collect supplies to donate to an animal shelter. Food, bowls, cat litter, animal treats, toys, and small blankets are always welcome.
- Participate in a habitat for humanity project. Kids will learn teamwork and valuable skills through participation in this worthy project.
- Volunteer to work in a soup kitchen or food bank. Kids can help serve, organize, or box food.
You may also be interested in Fun Family Activities That Teach or Bullying and Teens.
